Chapter 7: The Viewing Jadeite

Silence prevailed throughout the Cavern.

Akiko and Akane were clueless about what was going on in this situation but the adults were speechless in fright and disbelief!

Looking at their increasingly worried and frustrated faces, I could only sigh and completely sit up. Then kneeling on the ground I looked back up at them with a calm face.

"Alright, tell me what's wrong. You look like I'm about to die." I joked lightly in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Silence still held the air hostage as the adults looked at each other and then back at me.

/Oof, tough crowd. It seems they do think I'll die miserably!/ I groaned but didn't let it show on my face.

"Kekkai, where did you learn this technique? Who taught it to you?!" Grandpa Ryū inquired softly.

"I learned it from a book," I answered

"Which book?" He pressed

"I don't remember." I lied

"You can remember the entire map of the Land of stone down to the minute detail with a single glance. How can you forget a book that teaches techniques like that?" Akiko exposed me instantly

"I don't remember which book. It was something about monks and making a friend using your mind." I defended, not that there is anything about it here in this world.

"Kekkai! This is serious! Tell us who taught you that technique." Grandma Chiho admonished, her tone wasn't angry but extremely worried and scared.

This tone made me silent for a moment.

"I'm sorry, I really can't remember which book it was. Can you please tell me what's wrong?" I asked quietly after a moment of silence.

"Nothing. Nothing is wrong from what we can see. This, Tulpa, as you call it. Do you control it? Or does it have any effect on your mind?" Yoshiko whispered and came to my side rubbing my face softly.

"There's no effect on my mind whatsoever," I state strongly

"Can you get rid of it?" She asked,

"What do you mean get rid of it?!" I looked at her, surprised.

"Can you have it leave your mind or kill it? We can help if it's difficult, but we can't have something that can endanger you stay inside your head." She explained carefully

"No! Hell no! There's no way on earth I'm going to do that!" I growled and stopped her hands that were caressing my face forcefully before pushing them away in anger.

"Kekkai!" Hak-Or admonished loudly

Looking up I saw that everyone was watching me, not in anger for pushing my mother away, but scared and worried for me.

Realizing this I immediately regretted it. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, I dispersed my rising anger and looked at my mother apologetically.

"Sorry, mom. But No, I can't get rid of my Tulpa, And I wouldn't even try if I could." I apologized while bowing my head.

/%^#*~^!/ [Damain grunted

/Don't worry buddy. I got your back./ I appeased

/But on this, I'm sorry but I can't let up. I don't believe there is anything about tulpas in this world but it was originally a Buddhist Technique repurposed and revealed on the internet. [Damian] and the others are an essential part of my life, I can't just let them go or fade like that! It just won't work!/ I apologized again to my mother in my head

"That technique will bring harm to yourself and others if you continue to practice it. We can already see that you have certain control over it, but we are your family. If you use that technique elsewhere they could misunderstand it for something else."Grandma Chiho tried to reason with me, but I wasn't having it.

"What could they be mistaking it for? What's so bad that you guys will panic so much over a small mental technique?" I pressed.

"Enough!" Ryū roared.

This shout made me silent and I decided to just sit there and wait.

After a few moments, Ryū turned around and beckoned for everyone to follow him.

"Come, Since you don't want to explain where you got it from, we might as well enlighten you about the history of the subject, and why we fear it so much!" Ryū growled as he walked away.

The grown-ups followed him as well, meanwhile, Akiko and Akane helped me up from my kneeling position.

"How are your legs?" I asked Akiko as I got up.

"Good as new. I and Akane were also healing in the Cleansing Pool while you were asleep." Akiko shrugged while turning to the side and showing her legs which were no longer covered in bruises and dark veins.

"Great," I said while smiling.

"Are you going to stay there and chit-chat all day or are you going to hurry up!" Grandpa Ryū growled from the Cave exit.

"We're coming," Akane answered

Taking light steps, we splashed through the water to the sandy shore near the entrance, which was covered in glowing plants and crystals.

As soon as we stepped off the Coral and onto the shore, a loud echoing groan, that sounded in between a whale call and a roar of bison, spread through the cave. Then, with shocked eyes, I saw the entire coral shake lightly and then begin to sink and shift downwards.

Rolling like a ball, the coral slowly became shining hair as a gigantic horned head slowly maneuvered itself into the open pool area.

/It was a cow? With a coral stuck to its back? A fish cow? What were we doing standing on its back?/ I blinked in disbelief.

"Grandma says it's a Bitan Yokai spirit, a rare healing Yokai," Akiko explained

"Cool." I drawled in amazement as I saw its massive rounded eyes blink cutely at me before slowly sinking into the unknown depths of the lake.

Blinking, I looked down at the water and saw that the Bitan has completely vanished and was nowhere to be seen.

/Yeah, I don't think it would be good if someone fell in there without knowing how to swim./ I noted while my intrusive thoughts started to take hold.

Continuing, we followed the adults out of the entrance and into a long winding tunnel filled with glowing rocks and stalagmites. For a few minutes, everyone traveled in silence.

My mother, Yoshiko, lagged behind the others and came to our side after a while.

"She was beautiful, wasn't she?" she whispered

"Who?" I asked, confused.

"The Bitan, my silly boy, didn't you get a good look at her before we left?" She smiled and reminded me.

Thinking of that large Sea Cow and her Large innocent eyes that blinked surely. I smiled and nodded to my mother.

"Yep, she was cute." I acknowledged

"Not many people are so adaptable that they would take her large size as cute. We found her near a corrupted spring in the Land of Water close to over 12 years ago. We didn't have enough Pure Iron to refine a vessel large enough for her size, even at that size she was working hard to make herself smaller to fit into the cleansing pool portal. You should thank her when you get the chance." She explained

"She can understand me?" I inquired

"Of course, she can, but you won't be able to understand her without comprehending Spirit Language." She states with a smile.

"Ugh, I love learning but why do we have all these different languages? I've already had to learn four of them in less than a year! Why can't we just have one central tongue?" I grimaced when she talked about learning a whole new language.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with language arts. It's just that there were way too many to learn! There are over 15 languages mixed languages in this world and what I believe to be hundreds of dead and dying dialects.

It can be fun to learn the common Japanese that the closer elemental nations speak. But other lands speak a mix of Chinese, English, and Hindi. it gets repetitive and tiring to learn like this.

I'd much rather read a Bible(Came from a Christian family) from my last life and attend a political speech rally(Nearly died from boredom alone).

"Hehe, don't worry, Yokai speaks more through Chakra and the mind, rarely with a common tongue like normal summoning beasts. When you attend your coming-of-age ceremony Ida will bless you with their tongue even if you don't learn it on your own." Yoshiko chuckled at her son's rejecting groan of disgust.

"Great! That's good to hear, so where are we going now? Out of the mountain?" I asked as the corridor stretched into staircases and my Grandfather took the ones going up.

"No, I believe your grandfather is taking us to the Inner Library, where we keep a Viewing Jadite." She explained

"A viewing what?" I asked, confused

"A Viewing Jadite is a Stele that we use to record and pass down knowledge and information from generation to generation, it was made by our ancestors close to two and half centuries ago and is one of the most prized possessions in the clan," Ryū explained from the front of the group as he entered a stone arch that opened into a large Archive.

"Woah!! Very nice!" I muttered as I entered and spun around lightly to take in the sight around me.

Scrolls, Books, stone tablets, and many other manuscripts covered the entire archive.

Tall stands of preserved items and tools covered the walls like it was a museum gallery that had detailed armor, weapons, and their designs presented beside them.

The smell of paper and moths triggered something in my mind as a surge of excited emotions flooded in.

/Ring Ring! Rinnnnggg! Ringgggggg!/ An extremely excited chime began to sound within my head, and my fingers began to twitch as I felt the sudden compulsion to grab the nearest scroll I could reach and scan the entirety of its contents with ravenous hunger.

/Quiet down! I'm already dealing with [Damian]s mess, don't you go making trouble too!/ I scolded and restrained the compulsion to start devouring books.

"As you can see, over the years the Mēkā has built a collection of knowledge and information about wildlife, Local Myths, Yokai, and Gods of the various lands. But this is not what I want to show you three." Ryū explained with a little pride touching his tone while showing off the extensive Archive.

"You say it like you were raised here. If I didn't drag your proud little ass back all those years ago to marry me, here you would still be a mercenary fighting for scraps for the Daimyo." Grandma Chiho smiled as she cruelly burst my grandfather's parade.

"Cough, cough…..Ahem," This out-of-the-blue jab made her husband splutter and blush immediately.

"Ahem, so as I was saying, this is what I wanted to show you," He tried his best to clear his throat while pulling at the collar of his robe with a red face.

Taking us deeper into the Archive we came to a gigantic semi-transparent reddish jadeite on an open platform, covered in large winding rings of gleaming metal.

"Is this it? A big rock?" Asked Akane

"This is the Viewing Jadeite, and while it is not very useful on the surface when you add Chakra to the mix, it becomes a little more interesting." Grinned Ryū

/Is he going to do what I think he's going to?/ I wondered.

"Three centuries ago, two Shogun factions in the Country of Fire and Thunder had risen to power in their respective countries. Both of them were greedy and power-hungry parasites that drained the land of resources and population in attempts to cultivate stronger soldiers to fight one another." Ryū began to divulge the story in a deep dark tone while placing a hand onto the Jade, slowly the inside of the Jade slurred and shifted like a cloud of ink within.

/The classics! A visual and auditory learning tool taking the form of an old stone and an old man explaining it!/ I rolled my eyes but kept my attention on

Slowly an image of two armies came into clarity in the jade. On one end, large amounts of people in armor ride toads, Slugs, and other animals as mounts.

/These people are! Their fucking the Toad, Snake, and Slug summons creatures. Don't they stay inside their summoning realm? What the hell are they doing there?/ My eyes widened in shock as I recognized some of the beasts appearing in the army.

On the other side droves of solid black and red armor, samurai and monks stood in single file lines and glared at their opponents intensely, alongside them were giants of massive proportion straining against their restraints, Tailed Beasts.

"Grandpa what are those?!" Akiko asked, a little intimidated at the chained Tailed Beasts that glared through the image.

"Creatures that I hope you will never have to encounter in your life." Grandma Chiho states with a little shiver herself

"This battle in particular was the worst of them all! These bastards went crazy using creatures of mass destruction to fight their wars! Not caring at all about the innocents involved! They just take and take until there was nothing left to give!" Ryū grimaced but continued explaining, glancing at me from the corner of his eye.

But whatever he was looking for, he didn't find it as my attention was completely fixated on the screen in front of me.

Two tails Matatabi, four tails Son Goku, and five tails Kokuo, Lined up and restrained by massive glowing chains, the Tailed Beasts roared at their captors in ferocity and Madness!

And flying through the air was two men riding-Fucking Dragons!

"The battles between each clan were disastrous and destroyed the balance of nature, but when our ancestors were still a small noble at the time but we were forced to plead with both sides to stop, but we were rebuffed and close to being hunted if we stood in either sides way. These battles have gone on for years at a time, soaking the land in blood and soon enough, the Yokai were corrupted by this senseless bloodshed and retaliated." Ryū whispered while showing large pieces of land and people exploding and being torn to pieces under the battlefield.

As time passed a large amount of ash and black smoke began to gather between the two armies, swirling and condensing underneath the two fighters in the sky above until it ruptured!

Out poured ghastly creatures looking like the amalgamations of pestilence and disease. Sweeping the armies below and attacking the Dragon Riders.

The rider on top of a Beautiful Red and violet Wyrm simply condensed a glowing green skeletal armor around his mount and slashed deeply into the smog and creating a blank area to which he retreated.

/Susano, So it's Indra's incarnation and the other must be Asura's. Do these two brothers never stop fighting?!/

The other warrior, who I bet is Asura's incarnation, who rode a Deep purple dragon didn't have Susano to protect him but he didn't need it. Patting his Wyrm, he began building a Lightning cloak around the two of them and then dashed back down into the cloud below, chasing after Indra.

/Well that's different. Why is Asura attacking the Toads and Slugs? Shouldn't they be on his side?/ I noted as I watched Asura's dragon rain down Fire and thunder upon his army.

"Because of some disagreement, the Shogun of the Land of Thunder went into a wrath-filled rage and attacked Sage's army that was sent to assist him. Causing them to lose the battle. But not the war! Using some unknown technique, he drained the contaminated Natural Balance into himself and changed himself into a creature of pure evil. The Maou, the Oni, of pure mindless destruction!"

Unable to catch up with Indra, and no enemies in his immediate vicinity because of the rampant Miasma from the Yokai pouring out from the land.

Asura went ballistic seeing his enemy retreat with his army and took a deep swallowing breath, the miasma swirled and was quickly sucked away, disappearing as if it was never there. The corrupted Yokai along with the mist abruptly crumpled and turned into stone, even that disintegrated after soon after.

/Natural energy rebound? Is that even possible? I know that naruto can drain energy from his surrounding if he uses the power of Six-Paths, but he can't do it without letting them volunteer to give him chakra and natural energy. Where the hell is this incarnation storing it, he doesn't look like he is a Juinchurriki Host./ I wondered with frowned brows.

But when I turned my head to ask Grandpa Ryū what was happening he shook his head and pointed to the image.

"Continue watching what happens, the reason why we are so afraid of your technique. It is too similar!"

"Huh?" I asked confused.

"Look at it, sweetheart." Grandma Chiho insisted.

As I begrudgingly turned back, the screen zoomed in on Asura, but something had changed within this Asura incarnation. His skin had slowly changed tint from a pale white to ashen red, his skin steamed, bubbled, and boiled as his body contorted from what I believe to be Natural Energy fighting within him.

*SNAP*

A loud crack echoed throughout the Archive as Asura's back broke backward and twisted itself at a weird angle.

"Ahhhhh!"x2 Akiko and Akane screamed and hugged each other while sneaking behind my mother to hide.

*Slap*

"Don't you scare the children! We're showing him, not trying to make them pee their clothes!"Grandma Chiho glared at Ryū who made a loud back-cracking noise to scare us just a second ago.

"Your no fun," Grumbled Ryū

/Bad old man, / I rolled my eyes before resuming my gaze on Asura.

The twisted Asuras form continued to twist and alter itself. His body began to inflate and deflate itself under the pressure within and his samurai armor began to implode on itself. Hunching over in a silent scream his body turned pitch black and crack as if his skin was molten lava.

"According to our records, this is the third stage of Yokai possession, and hosts at this stage tend to get, Hungry," Ryū whispers.

Ripping out of his body, massive tentacles poured out like an eldrich horror, the dragon on the side of Asura who didn't retreat even after his master was transforming was grabbed and torn apart limb by limb by the swarming tentacles.

The only thing it could do was scream sorrowfully from the silent image. Bringing the corpse of his steed to his feet, Asura's body changed as a large maw began to spread across his chest, turning into a swarm of teeth that began to bite and chew.

The corpse was devoured in seconds, flesh, bones, and all.

Indra had noticed the situation and commanded his troops to retreat further, but sadly the Eldrich Being that was formally Asura wasn't satisfied, not even close.

Turning around to his enemy, the creature began to slowly walk, then jog, and finally broke out into an all-out run, chasing Indra's army with a strange cadence.

/This shit is straight out of a horror film./ I groan, /old man this isn't even close to what a Tulpa can do! That's fucking Asura! None of them are normal!/

Indra's men immediately tried to have the tailed beasts fire upon the approaching monster. But before most of them could move, the tentacles pouring from his body swarmed and altered themselves, digging into the ground like they were legs and propelling him forward.

It was like a wolf among sheep, no scratch that, it was like a fucking hydra among sheep! The swarming tentacles swiped randomly and like barbed hooks, always met and swallowed any prey that touched them.

The Tailed Beasts themselves were trying to run away to get as far as possible from this ravenous Asura.

Ripping, tearing, and shredding, it had an endless hunger. There was no stopping it as it went deeper into the army, the Indra incarnation tried to stop it but, that sadly proved to be a mistake that would cost him his life!

Roaring something at Asura, he swooped down with his Susano-clad Wyrm and attacked Asura, only to be stopped in his tracks by a group of tentacles that pierced his Susano like wet paper mache and turned him into an Indra-Shishkabob.

Not done with him, Asura started pulling his brother closer before opening that maw once again and devouring him whole!

After that, another transformation took place as his form started to balloon once again. Long curved horns began to stretch and curl along his head and his arms grew distorted claws, the tentacles thrashed around before solidifying and dropping into crumbling stone.

/this guy is going on Full demon time. I'm so glad that naruto didn't turn into that when shippuden happened. It goes to show that Ashura can be scary as well if he wants to be the bad guy./

New form, but a renewed appetite as well, he continued to ravage what was left of his rivals army.

"For three days straight, this monster ravaged the land as a tyrannical beast devouring it's former followers and enemies alike with it's power. It wasn't until the Daimyo's finally had enough and asked the gods to send down punishment upon him did it stop." Ryū changed the screen and in it appeared dozens of Massive fully grown Dragons swooping down a canyon and laying massive turrets of flame, ash, and acid in an attempt to kill Asura.

"When they finally accomplished their task, 200 Square miles of land was ravished into a wasteland that we call the Scorched Earth."